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Buying First Tablet

I'm thinking of buying my first Tablet …….. and I've got the Lenova E10 Tab 10.1 inch 16GB model in mind which is in the Sale at Argos

It's got pretty good write ups as a standard no frills Tablet which does what Tablets are meant to do

To be honest I've got no idea of what a Tablet does really but no doubt I'd learn how to use it. But a couple of things I'd like to check

Firstly it's got two cameras (front and back)…….. not quite sure why ! …….. but this is the immediate thing I need is a camera that I can upload photos to my laptop from. I assume there's no problem uploading photos to a laptop ? (I don't have a mobile phone and don't really want to get one)

Also ……… can you send and receive e-mail from a tablet?. Obviously it could be a problem typing an e-mail with no keyboard !

The other thing I can think of is that it would be useful to get on the internet if we had a power cut. We did have a season of power cuts last year, three or four of them, and as I work at home a battery operated device with a long battery life (it says 10 hours) would be invaluable

Can you store and edit Word documents on a tablet ? ………. and could I find some way to type through an on-screen keyboard ?

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I'm thinking of buying my first Tablet …….. and I've got the Lenova E10 Tab 10.1 inch 16GB model in mind which is in the Sale at Argos

It's got pretty good write ups as a standard no frills Tablet which does what Tablets are meant to do

To be honest I've got no idea of what a Tablet does really but no doubt I'd learn how to use it. But a couple of things I'd like to check

Firstly it's got two cameras (front and back)…….. not quite sure why ! …….. but this is the immediate thing I need is a camera that I can upload photos to my laptop from. I assume there's no problem uploading photos to a laptop ? (I don't have a mobile phone and don't really want to get one)

Also ……… can you send and receive e-mail from a tablet?. Obviously it could be a problem typing an e-mail with no keyboard !

The other thing I can think of is that it would be useful to get on the internet if we had a power cut. We did have a season of power cuts last year, three or four of them, and as I work at home a battery operated device with a long battery life (it says 10 hours) would be invaluable

Can you store and edit Word documents on a tablet ? ………. and could I find some way to type through an on-screen keyboard ?

I don't have your preferred type but I'll try to answer some of the questions.

Most tablets can (to some extent) be used in lieu of a desktop, with obvious exceptions being power depending on what you're buying. The most difficult things I've found are navigating some webpages using touch alone, rather than a keyboard with mouse, but you can get little keyboards for most tablets if this annoys you too much.

Camera front and back, one for video calls (Skype etc) and one for taking shots or filming. You can use both for these things, two cameras just make it so you don't have to keep flipping the device around and the camera menu should let you swap between them. The cameras aren't always that great, especially on the cheaper tablets. As for uploading them to your laptop, you could probably do it through dropbox (sorry, I don't know Android that well) but if it takes an SD card and you could use that too I guess.

Yes, you can send e-mail and most tablets will let you connect to multiple e-mail accounts. All tablets have an on screen touch keyboard, but as I mentioned earlier, they can be a bit clunky.

If the power goes out, your router will go out, surely? So not sure how you would connect to the internet then unless you could tether it or something? (again, my knowledge here is limited to my own wi-fi only device)

I don't know about word for Android, Apple has it in their store for the iPad, but it's read documents only unless you pay a subscription fee (last time I looked) but there must be a good word processing suit in the play store (Android's application store) for an Android device. Again, there will be an on screen keyboard, but I find them fairly rubbish for creating word type documents and have a small bluetooth keyboard for mind that I picked up from Amazon a few years back for about £20.

All in all tablets are great, but they have their limitations and for me the touch screen keyboard has always been one of them.

I hope I made some sense, I'm sure there'll be others along to clear any mistakes I made and go into better technical detail.

that thing about the hub/router being off in a power cut did occur to me whilst I was lying in bed !

D'oh !

Getting this tablet seemed like a good idea last night but I'm going off it

My immediate problem is trying to complete the Identity Verification process to register for self assessment tax online (which is going to be made compulsory in a years time) ………… I get to a point where they ask me to upload a photo of my passport and ask if I have an Android device ……….. when I click 'NO' they just dump me out and say 'Come Back Later' which I read as 'Get Yourself an Android Device and Try Again'

There are Tablets available for most price ranges and as with most things you get what you pay for generally. So you will need to set a budget and then see what you can get for that. There are four operating systems available, Windows, Apple OS, Android and Linux. You haven’t said what type of laptop so assuming you have a Windows one any of these tablet systems should be compatible. You will then need to look at the specifications of the camera, as you mentioned a need for that, to see if the resolutions are high enough for your needs. Apart from Apple iPads the others generally have an SD card slot for loading files and photos on. If you want to use it away from Wi-fi sources such as when there is a power cut or just whilst out and about you will need one with a 3 or 4G capability which you will need a mobile SIM card for. So before you jump into a purchase you will need to do some research to find which type of tablet would best suit your needs for the price you are prepared to pay.

I've had that exact model for nearly two years now and for the price I strongly recommend it. I don't know of any other 10" tablet that is better for the money. Obviously it isn't lightning fast but it sounds like you don't need that. You wouldn't get this tablet if you are a hardcore gamer (sounds like you're anything but!) but it'll do things like stream HD video pretty well. it'll do all the things you mention with ease. If you can use a laptop you'll soon find a tablet much easier.

It has a virtual keyboard that appears whenever you need to type something, or you can dictate - both work very well.

There are several straightforward ways to upload photos from it to another device

Battery life is very good, unusually so for a budget tablet. Tip - don't let the charge drop below 20% and don't charge above 90%. That way your battery will last much longer - important because when the battery goes it's bye bye tablet because tablet batteries are nearly all non replaceable, even on expensive tablets.

To get the most out of it you will need to download a few apps. I would advise installing an email app to which you can add any email accounts you want to. I've tried several and my current favourite is Edison Mail. It accepts multiple email accounts and is ad free.

You can do all of your document editing via Google Docs. I seem to recall it comes pre installed but if not it's easy to download. You get 15 GB free storage. If you prefer Microsoft Office then obviously you can install that.

I would also advise installing an antivirus. The best free one I have used is Sophos Mobile Security. No ads, web protection and doesn't slow the tablet down.

If you are going to use public wifi I also recommend using a VPN. Proton VPN is an excellent free one.

As I said, why did you click No, The tablet you are referring is a Android device.

BTW, if you really want to do your tax via the tablet there are 3rd party apps available specifically for digital tax, managing receipts, invoicing, returns etc but none that I know are free.

Sorry, I think we're at cross ends here

At the moment I haven't got an Android device ……… so when it asked me if I have one I clicked NO

I'm thinking of getting one but I haven't got one at the moment

Ah, you are trying to use a Windows Laptop at the moment to authenticate and upload a photo ? I haven't tried the website but I am supposed they don't give a file chooser window and you just select a jpeg of your passport.

Regardless of the task you want it for right now, it's always useful to have another device as a backup to your main device anyway. I personally would get the Lenovo. You won't get more bang for your buck and I guarantee you will find it easier to use than a laptop. And as someone else said, you can Skype (video call) anyone for free.

Regardless of the task you want it for right now, it's always useful to have another device as a backup to your main device anyway. I personally would get the Lenovo. You won't get more bang for your buck and I guarantee you will find it easier to use than a laptop. And as someone else said, you can Skype (video call) anyone for free.

This. My laptop died in October and I've not found a suitable replacement yet, so my tablet has been invaluable. OP, hope we haven't all scared you off getting one. Sure there's a bit of a learning curve for a newbie, but if both my elderly, tech-confused parents can do it, then so can you. There'll be plenty of people on here to answer your questions and even if you find you can't use it for the intricate stuff, it's still there for lying in bed and watching Youtube, posting here and general internet shopping/browsing.

I certainly wouldn't give mine up, even when I find a new laptop for all my other stuff.

Regardless of the task you want it for right now, it's always useful to have another device as a backup to your main device anyway. I personally would get the Lenovo. You won't get more bang for your buck and I guarantee you will find it easier to use than a laptop. And as someone else said, you can Skype (video call) anyone for free.

I've got another laptop as my back up device

when one of those dies I'll use the other as my main one and buy a new one to prepare as a back up